PARIS, France (AFP) – The vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech appears to maintain its effectiveness against coronavirus mutations in new worrying variants that have recently emerged in Britain and South Africa, the companies said on Thursday.
Several new variants – each with a cluster of genetic mutations – have raised fears about an increase in infectiousness, as well as suggestions that the virus could start to escape the immune response, whether from a previous infection or a vaccine.
Pfizer / BioNTech, which had previously said that the strain originally found in Britain was unlikely to escape protection from the vaccine, said Thursday that early tests suggest that its immunization would be similarly protective against the variant in South Africa .
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The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is being used by Israel in its world-leading vaccination campaign.
In a statement, the two companies said that these preliminary findings “do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to deal with emerging variants”.
They said they are “ready to respond” if a new strain is able to escape the vaccine’s immunity, adding that they can produce updates to their injection if necessary.
A healthcare professional prepares a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, January 12, 2021. (Oded Balilty / AP)
The statement came after the American biotechnology company Modern announced this week that laboratory studies suggest that its vaccine should protect against variants found for the first time in the UK and South Africa.
The latest Pfizer / BioNTech research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was carried out by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas.
The authors compared the antibodies of 20 people who received two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine during clinical trials with sets of laboratory-engineered mutations present in the variants that emerged in Britain and South Africa.
Fears of ‘escape’
The new variants – along with one linked to Brazil – show mutations in the virus’s spike protein, which allows the virus to attach itself to human cells and, therefore, plays a key role in driving infections.
One particular mutation – known as E484K and found in strains in South Africa and Brazil, but not in Great Britain – has experts particularly concerned with the “escape” of immunity.
The study found that the antibodies were able to neutralize all the sets of mutations tested.
He noted that the effect was “slightly less” against three mutations in the variant found in South Africa, including E484K.
A worker sanitizes the handrails of an escalator in a Johannesburg mall, December 8, 2020. (AP Photo / Denis Farrell)
But the companies said it was “unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness”.
They said they were looking to test the full set of mutations in the spike protein of the variant that emerged in South Africa.
A study released last week by researchers in South Africa, which was also not peer-reviewed, tested the variant found there against the blood plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients.
They found he was resistant to neutralizing antibodies created from a previous infection, but said more research is needed on the effectiveness of other parts of the immune response.
Global daily deaths from COVID-19 reached 18,000 for the first time on Wednesday, with vaccines seen as the only real chance of returning to some form of normalcy.
The German company BioNTech previously said that messenger RNA technology means it could update the vaccine against new variants in weeks.
